guess between 200k and 400k now and getting smaller all the time. But the freeloaders are still making the game populated.

I think subs raised around 700/800k, but the population is higher than 1,2 mil. Plus people are spending lots of money on gambling packs.

So, according to posters opinion, SWTOR amount of active subscripstions is between 300k-600k.

 

An average of 450k then? WoW. less than 20% of the top number.:(

 

Not sure about how I feel about this... I wanted this game to be the next WoW, you know... What did we do wrong?

Validating your opinion based on popularity. Typical.

Anyone knows the answer?

It's almost impossible for us to say now, because F2P masks all the guessitmate stats.

Certainly I think SWTOR was probably down to around 500,000 subs just before F2P, but now? Who knows.

There really is no way to tell to be honest, because the company chooses to hide the numbers from the populace, which in itself is generally not a good sign. I am not saying it's the end of the game, but a company that remains close-lipped is probably not the best one to be running things. I would estimate, though, as a returning player, they probably have between 350-500K active subscribers now, with the launch of free-to-play. I am sure they have over One Million accounts, though, just not all subscription. And I will be honest, I am betting hardly any of the F2P people are the ones spending cash in the cartel market. People paying for a subscription have the cash, people who need to F2P, probably don't.

That being said, I was here in beta and at launch, and enjoyed the game for a few months, but it got very stale very fast and I left just before patch 1.2. I just came back this month and find I enjoy it still, but I do not know how long I will stay subbed, as it hasn't changed all that much. I would have been Free-2-Play, but after having been a sub, I found the restrictions too annoying, though someone who hasn't subbed before might not mind it terribly.

And honestly, I expected them to introduce a cash shop sooner than they did, as that seems to be the normal business model for recent MMO's. I thought Diablo III was going to be an awesome game, but that fell hard and is just now barely picking itself back up again.

FACTS WE KNOW:

The game launched with 2 million subs

Articles indicated there were MASSIVE drops off within the first few months

Last official numbers we got indicated little more than 500k

Validating your opinion based on popularity. Typical.

Asking questions and not being sure= validating opinion based on popularity. Why yes, How I could not notice that before!

Here, have a cookie.

Don;t worry the next EA Quarterly call will be coming up soon and well all find out that this game has dropped well below the 500k sub mark.

Judging by amount of servers and amount of people online at peak times, this game probably has around the same amount of subs as EQ1/EQ2/LOTRO/FFXI - Which is around 250-450k...

Sub numbers released by the companies involved are completely meaningless.

Don't have enough? Padding the numbers is as simple as generating thousands of comp accounts tied to nobody.

Don;t worry the next EA Quarterly call will be coming up soon and well all find out that this game has dropped well below the 500k sub mark.

 

Judging by amount of servers and amount of people online at peak times, this game probably has around the same amount of subs as EQ1/EQ2/LOTRO/FFXI - Which is around 250-450k...

The quarterlies will not mention sub numbers ever again.

They will mention "rising metrics" over the month before the quarterly call(forgetting to mention release of an up-date which drew more peeps in or more action in the cash shop due to new releases, sly dogs that they are).

FACTS WE KNOW:

 

The game launched with 2 million subs

 

Articles indicated there were MASSIVE drops off within the first few months

 

Last official numbers we got indicated little more than 500k

That's not what they said at all. The exact quote from Oct was:

"Although it launched well, subscriptions have been on a declining trajectory and have now slipped below one million. Last year we announced that the breakeven point was roughly 500,000 subscribers. And while we are well above that today, that’s not good enough. "

So under a million, well above 500k. That was when they announced the F2P transition.

I think the number of subscribers has increased a lot lately, i'd say somewhere around 750k, and rising.

Once new content rolls out things will get even better.

So, if SWTOR never got below 500k subs, the point they originally set their measuring stick, why the hell did EA did such a mess with the SWTOR team? Layoffs, restrictions in the budget, etc?

If the game was, although not the new king of MMOs, a financial success, why take those measures that so strongly resemble "milk-the-cash-cow-dry-and-run"?

Anyone has any idea?

350,000 subs is what I would say. Let's be clear. If every subscriber pays $15 a month, that's still like $60m a year, not counting income from the cartel shop/expansions.

 

Think about it. If a game was in development for 5 years at a studio that was costing 60m a year, that's $300m. EA can still make considerable profit from this game, if it actually tries.

No. Lets assume your numbers are correct. You're excluding things like employees (which EA has been trying to cut down on because they are eating a substantial amount of the little profit this game makes), server costs, licensing costs, etc etc. In reality they aren't making nearly 60 million a year.

So, if SWTOR never got below 500k subs, the point they originally set their measuring stick, why the hell did EA did such a mess with the SWTOR team? Layoffs, restrictions in the budget, etc?

 

If the game was, although not the new king of MMOs, a financial success, why take those measures that so strongly resemble "milk-the-cash-cow-dry-and-run"?

 

Anyone has any idea?

It's all a lie that's why. There is a reason they don't release subscription numbers anymore, because its well below 500k. If subscription numbers were over 500k they would have absolutely no reason not to release them. Since they are well below 500k they have to hide it from the community to make sure that more mass panic and subscriber loss doesn't happen. If I had to guess how many subscribers there are still left I would say roughly 200-250k.

No. Lets assume your numbers are correct. You're excluding things like employees (which EA has been trying to cut down on because they are eating a substantial amount of the little profit this game makes), server costs, licensing costs, etc etc. In reality they aren't making nearly 60 million a year.

You forgot taxes

As far as I am aware I remember reading somewhere that the Lucas liscence only kicks in when they have repaid there initial outlay, maybe they have, maybe not and it equates to around $5 per subscriber per month, yet another reason for BW to keep them numbers low and rely on the cartel market

At any rate subs are not as relevant as they were prior to the launch of F2P. What's more important is the amount of folks that are actually playing the game and the return on the market.

Just my opinion of course.

So, if SWTOR never got below 500k subs, the point they originally set their measuring stick, why the hell did EA did such a mess with the SWTOR team? Layoffs, restrictions in the budget, etc?

 

If the game was, although not the new king of MMOs, a financial success, why take those measures that so strongly resemble "milk-the-cash-cow-dry-and-run"?

 

Anyone has any idea?

EA is successful not because it just makes good games but because it knows how to stay in the black. They saw subs dropping they knew what was going to happen so they fired people.

They would rather fire the people early and save profit then wait till it was below that point.

simple as that.

It's all a lie that's why. There is a reason they don't release subscription numbers anymore, because its well below 500k. If subscription numbers were over 500k they would have absolutely no reason not to release them. Since they are well below 500k they have to hide it from the community to make sure that more mass panic and subscriber loss doesn't happen. If I had to guess how many subscribers there are still left I would say roughly 200-250k.

except you forget that they can't lie during investor calls. They said during the investor calls that it was ABOVE 500k in the last call.

So, if SWTOR never got below 500k subs, the point they originally set their measuring stick, why the hell did EA did such a mess with the SWTOR team? Layoffs, restrictions in the budget, etc?

 

If the game was, although not the new king of MMOs, a financial success, why take those measures that so strongly resemble "milk-the-cash-cow-dry-and-run"?

 

Anyone has any idea?

Ignore what the other poster said.

The reason why is because EA doesnt want only profitable, they want a rampanging sucess that gives them alot of money. That is the only reason why the game went F2P option. EA craves alot of money as fast as possible. Its usually the enemy of perfection, but if EA does get that, then the game will thrive with more support.

We once reached 2 million subs? Wow, felt like a dream.

Actually that was with free month. I dont recall sub numbers above 1.2-1.5 million.